Originally Posted By: RedOakRanch
My FICO has been a perfect 850 twice this year. I close cards I don't use and pay the others in full every month. I have a mortgage and 2 cards in my name and that's it. My wife has a car loan and about 6 cards in her name and her score is about 845. I'd close anything you don't use. All my cards are new accounts only a few years old. My wife has the 20yr card, I don't think it makes a difference. My parents have every kind of debt you can imagine, it turns my stomach, there FICO's are both about 840. I think the only thing that matters is paying the bill on time.
Technically it's impossible to have a perfect 850 when your credit score is typically the mid score. Credit scoring models by all 3 credit bureaus vary, top scores for all three range from 839, 844 to 850. So if you really had a perfect score, it'd be 844. My guess is that you have a Vantage score which goes up to 950. Or they're using a slightly different scoring models. The ones I use are Fico Risk score Classic (04), Fair Isaac V2, and Fico Classic V8. For mortgage purposes, anything above a 740 is fine. Actually quite rare for many people to have scores over 800. That's why I think you have a so called "fako" score. Unless you got the score from a mortgage broker. Car dealers also use a slightly different scoring model that also has a higher range.